Facing each other in the Crossroads Classic at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, the neighborhood rivals looked to be a teensy bit mismatched as they took the court at the start Saturday. IU was perfect through 10 games, Butler was 8-2 and had been beaten rather comfortably by Xavier and Illinois. And, at power forward, the Bulldogs’ Roosevelt Jones gave up 5 inches to Hoosiers senior Christian Watford.

It turned out not to matter much which team was bigger or which had the grander reputation. Butler so furiously outfought IU in general—and Watford in particular—on the boards that Hoosiers coach Tom Crean eventually gave up on playing Watford and went with a smaller lineup. Crean also chose to keep 7-foot All-American center Cody Zeller on the bench for the final possession of overtime, trying to avoid being caught in a disadvantageous defensive switch, and that cleared the lane for 5-11 Alex Barlow to drive to the middle and score the game-winning turnaround in an 88-86 thriller.

“The bottom line for us: We didn’t rebound the ball today,” Crean said. “We missed some shots, we missed some free throws, but for me the big theme for where we’ve got to improve is in our rebounding.

“They got garbage baskets, and I don’t mean garbage in a negative term. I mean it in a positive term. They got more layups than we did.”

The final tally in the rebounding column was Butler 40, Indiana 38, but that does not come close to capturing the differential between the two teams, which is why Crean kept returning to the topic of rebounding as he navigated an 11-minute postgame press conference.

Watford entered this season as a pro prospect but is not playing at that level. His shooting remains a potent weapon, and his rebounding numbers are up, but this is the second time in a big game—following North Carolina at home—he was unable to last even 25 minutes. Some of it was foul trouble, but he finished with one defensive rebound in 23 minutes played. That rounds out to two had he gone the whole 40.

Watford’s struggles developed at the worst possible time. Indiana’s frontcourt reserves are either recovering from injury (Derek Elston) or just coming off suspension (freshman Hanner Mosquera-Perea, who played three minutes against Butler). When Watford’s not earning his minutes, he is being replaced by someone smaller. And that’s not really helping in the rebounding department.

After the game, CBS Sports analyst Clark Kellogg asked Jones—who delivered 16 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists—how he was able to play with the big guys inside.

“I’ve been doing it my whole life,” Jones said.

Well, yeah, until Saturday, when he was pretty much looking most IU players in the eye because it was usually someone like 6-6 Will Sheehey defending him.

Zeller also failed to assert himself as a rebounder. He got five, compared to nine for Butler’s 7-foot Andrew Smith.

Crean said he expected that when he looked at the tape he would be “disappointed in some of our contact on the blockouts.”

The bottom line for Indiana is it was bound to end up paying the price at some point for the lack of interior depth that struck over the first third of the season—something that should be reversed as the Hoosiers approach Big Ten play. If Mosquera-Perea is as helpful as Crean projects him to be, he’ll either push Watford to do his job better or start taking his minutes.

“I’m excited about getting back to practice,” Crean said Saturday night. “I’m excited about the rebounding drills we’ll be doing. I’m not sure there’ll be many people sharing that joy with me. That’s an area we’ve really got to shore up for ourselves.”

MEMPHIS’ LOSING HABITS

Memphis shot 51.8 percent from the field Saturday. And lost.

Memphis played before a frenzied home crowd that included students who lined up hours before game time to get the best seats. And lost.

The Tigers lost because for all the things they had to their advantage, their careless habits controlling the basketball and defending opponents have not been broken.

In defeats against VCU, Minnesota and Saturday by an 87-78 margin to No. 6 Louisville, the Tigers have averaged 20.6 turnovers. They’ve allowed the opposition to shoot 47 percent from the field and attempt an average of 33 foul shots. A total of eight Memphis players have been disqualified from those three games, including five Saturday.

The Tigers' defensive numbers aren't that bad overall—37th in defensive efficiency according to Kenpom.com—but they aren’t executing sound defensive principles when under game pressure.

“I thought we had great energy in the first half, and for the most part, in the second half,” Memphis coach Josh Pastner said afterward. “There was a four-minute stretch there were I felt we had a deflation of energy. I think it was during that time period when they hit those multiple shots.

“I told the guys in the pregame, ‘Louisville is going to make runs and we can’t get too high or too low.’ The key is for our guards to take care of the ball. In our three losses, the guards either have not shot well or have turned it over a bunch.”

Much of the pressure Memphis encountered regarding winning Saturday’s game was self-imposed. The Tigers have yet to beat a ranked opponent during Pastner’s tenure. That's one of those empty stats, doesn’t really mean much. Michigan State’s Tom Izzo was beaten up a few years back for a similar slump against ranked opponents, and he has made two Final Fours since. But the Tigers themselves talked during the summer about how important this was to them.

Now it’s unlikely they’ll play another ranked opponent unless they either get a lousy NCAA Tournament seed and draw a ranked team in the opener, or manage to advance a round. That, as well, would be a first for Pastner.

It is the Tigers’ misfortune that they play in a league that is not rich with exceptional basketball programs, and thus they must front-load their schedule and play their best opponents in November and December. At least that does not figure to be a problem with they get to the big, bad Big East next ...

Oh, wait.

“I think Josh is a terrific young coach, going to get better and better and better,” Louisville coach Rick Pitino said Saturday. “Everybody always gets on young coaches, but I know one thing—I wish I was his age (35) now—but he’s much better than me when I was his age.

“He’s going to do a terrific job with this program. Already has.”

RIP BIG EAST

The various generations of basketball lovers who were attached to the Big East over its roughly three decades all have their own favorite memories, their own positions about when the league was at its best, and every one of them is right.

There were the pioneer days, before the whole shebang was a perpetual TV show and John Thompson declared, “Manley Field House is officially closed.”

There were the glory days, when the relatively young league placed three teams in the 1985 Final Four and league members played in the national championship game five times in eight years.

There were the gory days, when the league was so deep that eight of nine members went into Selection Sunday believing they had a legit chance at the NCAA Tournament—and seven of them made it. That’s 77 percent of the league. No one’s ever really come close.

There were the dying days, when the league was so vital on the court a record 11 members made it to the NCAAs and the eventual national champions managed only a .500 record in conference play.

It has all been marvelous. And it’s all gone.

Saturday afternoon, presidents of seven Catholic institutions whose primary sport is basketball announced they were splitting from the football-playing membership to form a league more suited to their interests. They did not destroy this league. That was done when Pitt and Syracuse sneaked out the back door in September 2011. The basketball schools merely finished the job.

It is sad to see them all leave behind their history, wrecking the chance to connect future accomplishments to past triumphs, which always has been an essential part of the fan experience. But what’s saddest of all is that no one who has departed the league ever will be as suited to its new conference home as it was in the old Big East. Not West Virginia in the Big 12, not Syracuse in the ACC, not Georgetown and Villanova in whatever this new league is called.

Some of them will be wealthier. But aren’t sports supposed to be fun?

QUICK SHOTS

Say hello to ...

The Illinois-Chicago Flames. That’s right, the Flames. Their 9-1 record represents their best start in 15 years, and it’s dotted with results that carry some consequence. For instance, Saturday’s victory at home was over Eastern Michigan, which held Purdue to 44 points last time out. UIC slapped the Eagles with 30 more than that in a 74-48 victory. UIC has lost only to No. 17 New Mexico and defeated both Colorado State and Northwestern earlier. With Butler gone, the Horizon League could stage a compelling race including Wright State, Loyola and Valpo (all 7-3) and Detroit and Youngstown State (both 6-4).

Say goodnight to ...

Steven Adams’ doubters. Pitt’s freshman center is averaging 6.2 points and 5.6 rebounds and his team is 10-1, with a loss only to No. 3 Michigan. And for that, he has been labeled a disappointment. OK, so if it’s stats you want, he delivered 16 points and 10 rebounds in an 89-40 victory Saturday over Bethune-Cookman.

Say a prayer for ...

The SEC. The league began the day seventh in conference RPI and could be in position to drop another notch after Alabama was drilled on the road by VCU and Georgia plunged to 2-7 with a loss to a .500 Iona team. And Mississippi State lost at Loyola (Ill.). Texas A&M’s loss to Oklahoma on Saturday was no great shame, but someone in the league could stand to do something worth celebrating.